mistahkentsdndhomebrewfandomcom-20200215-history
Camden Estate Arcane Campus
Introduction The Camden Estate Arcane Campus is a large, walled complex with a long history and many secrets. The formal name, as it is housed on what is now the Camden Estate, is the Camden Estate Arcane Campus (which coincidentally has resulted in some of the Camden family - rather untalented casters - being passed through its ranks), it is also known as The Arcane University. Almost everyone refers to it by this name, except in the presence of the Camden family. The Arcane University isn't the largest building in Bloodcove, but it is certainly among the oldest. The University has been added to and modified through the ages, and the architecture is wild and chaotic. The outer stone wall which encircles the four Colleges within is patched with mortar, and reinforced with magic. Between the Colleges are student dormitories, a dining hall, a library, and a common room. The College buildings mainly contain the classrooms, labs, professor's chambers, private libraries, as well residence for senior students. Students, of about thirty to forty a year, and most starting in their teens, learn the ability to cast a couple cantrips and gain some understanding of magical theory. Only exceptional students (at most a half-dozen a year) are capable of being full arcane casters. The standard length of instruction at the University is six years. Each of the four Colleges has a head professor and three adjunct professors. The entire University is run jointly by the head professor's of each College. The headmaster position has been vacant for the last decade, since the disappearance of the last one into the Vaults. The University is guarded by the professors themselves, as well as defenders left behind by the previous headmaster. There is a permanent guards and wards spell, which covers restricted areas of the university (access to the well-known areas of the vaults, some labs and summoning chambers, the headmaster's quarters, each College head professor's quarters, and access the library after hours (11th level caster)). There is also a powerful stone golem created by the previous headmistress, that guards the room. Nobody alive has command of it anymore, so it cannot be put to other tasks. After investigation as to her whereabouts, the previous headmistress' quarters atop the library have been left untouched and inaccessible as a sign of respect. History The Arcane University as it is known today has stood in Bloodcove for about 65 years. The estate originally housed travelling Arcanists before they set out into the Expanse. Over time some of the prominent Inner Sea arcane institutions built their own structures on the estate grounds to serve their own members. Eventually the Estate became it own stand alone research and teaching institute but the existing colleges traditions and teachings each draw heavily from their historical founders. The school is storied with wizened professors, and exceptional students, but most who attend are unable to learn more than simple cantrips, and pay handsomely for the privilege. The true origin of the Arcane University predates the existence of Bloodcove by an unknown number of centuries. It has been settled and resettled by various groups as a site of worship and rite with few lasting traces of their existence. Whether they knew it or not, the original builders of the University were attracted to the site by the same forces as these early developers. There are elemental conduits underneath the foundations of the University - ley lines - long dormant and inactive. The site of the University is at a nexus of four elemental ley lines, one for each element. Over the years, the subtle influence of each conduit has influenced the progression of a college within the University. The Monument After the walls and spires of the University, the first thing any new student sees is the Monument. Proudly display in the front archway, there is a shaped metal wall, with unusual protrusions and shapes. It is an unsolved riddle covered with stark, geometric runes of an unknown language. It radiates no magic, but people are always drawn to it. There have been thousands of attempts to decipher the Monument, but none of them have been successful. No one even knows who built it or where it is from. Studying the Monument for too long results in delusion and obsessing over it results in madness. Most people assume it is some kind of cryptographic code, although speculations of its origin and purpose are wildly varied. Colleges There are four colleges within the Arcane University. They reflect the four dominant magic schools of the Mwangi Expanse. The Acadamae This dangerous school promotes study of the various schools of magic, with a particular focus on conjuration. As water, or rather blood, is the substance that binds life, the elemental water ley line has influenced the development of this school. The architecture of the Acadamae tends towards smooth, graceful curves, and creatures from the elemental plane of water are summoned with a +1 CL while on the University grounds, or beneath them. The Arcanamirium The largest and most respected school of arcane magic in the Inner Sea region, established by exiled arclords of Nex, focuses on the study of “practical magic". Magic, they say, can be like the wind. Quick, fleeting, or a sustained hurricane. The architecture of the Arcanamirium college represents this, tall spires, and works of glass. The Magaambya Founded by legendary wizard Old-Mage Jatembe, this is the oldest surviving and still operating academy in the Inner Sea region. This College may actually trace its roots back to the early magic users at the site before the University existed. Unfortunately, there is no way to know for sure, as the oral tradition of the College has warped and clouded the true truth of its origins. First year students at the College are responsible for the maintenance of the elaborate gardens throughout the campus. Particularly prominent students are the ones able to go on to learn some druidic spells, their green thumbs unconsciously influence by the slumbering earth ley line beneath the campus. The Oenopion Fleshforges Strange new soldiers are alchemically and magically constructed in the experimental laboratories of the Oenopion Fleshforges. While sometimes reviled by the other campus', nobody can dispute the dedication and passsion of the Oenopion students. They are influenced by the fire ley line, and desire to reshaping flesh and metal like a candle flame to wax. There are a few lesser constructs and some aberrations in the University that have been created by the Oenopion Fleshforgers. Every term or two, when a student volunteers for experiments and goes missing, it's often thought they attempt to retreat into the Vaults beneath the University. Underneath the University The Vaults Deep within a partially collapsed and twisting labyrinth are the Vaults; hidden classroom and secret doors, tombs, secret summoning chambers, and reliquaries of the University through the ages. Students are forbidden to explore beneath the University, unless they are being sacrificed volunteered by their professors. A few professors have clandestine digs to uncover artifacts, and have secret doors and stairwells connecting down to the Vaults. Deep within the mazes may lie hints of the conduits, past civilizations, great riches, and powerful magic. Some vaults are known, but protected, by an affiliate College, where the knowledge is closely held and secret. A few vaults are dangerous, guarded by monsters. Most are lost, but not all. Many vaults are from the University's history itself, but not all. Most treasure hunters who go seeking these riches don't come back, but not all. Of those who come back, most of them are visibly changed and haunted, their mannerisms plainly altered, but not all.